Is practicing Buddhism solely to acheive a good rebirth considered misguided?
It would be quite misguided to turn to other teachings in order to pursue such good rebirths. The Buddha himself provided such teachings specifically for those who are not yet ready or are not inclined to attain Nibbāna.
One example is the teaching given to the people of the Bamboo Gate (SN 55.7):
"We wish to live at home with our children; to use sandalwood imported from Kāsi; to wear garlands, fragrance, and makeup; and to accept gold and currency. And when our body breaks up, after death, we wish to be reborn in a good place, a heavenly realm. Given that we have such wishes, may the Buddha teach us the Dhamma so that we may achieve them.”
Other example is the brahmin students Vāseṭṭha and Bhāradvāja, who where taught a practice of meditation based on the Brāhma Viharas to achieve rebirth in the Brahma Realms (DN13):
“I have heard, worthy Gotama, that you teach the path to company with Divinity. Please teach us that path and elevate this generation of brahmins.”
But the Buddha clearly stated that Nibbāna is superior to these aims. One example is when Sāriputta taught the path to company with Divinity to the brahmin Dhanañjāni. The Buddha did not reproach the teaching itself, but pointed out that Dhanañjāni had the potential to go beyond that attainment (MN97):
“Mendicants, Sāriputta, after establishing Dhanañjāni in the inferior realm of divinity, got up from his seat and left while there was still more left to do.”
So, rebirth in heavenly realms is an acceptable goal—as long as one stays open to going further and reaching the higher goal.
I’m revisiting this topic because I have found an interesting sutta. Here, a Buddha from the past didn’t teach for immediate liberation from Samsāra, but for attaining a long sequence of good rebirths before attaining Nibbāna:
Rising up from meditation
the Teacher, Best One in the World,
declaring my karmic result
then did speak these words to me there:
“Practice Buddha-recollection,
it’s the supreme meditation.
Cultivating this mindfulness
will be fulfilling mentally.
For thirty thousand aeons you
will delight in the world of gods.
Eighty times as the king of gods
you will exercise divine rule.
A thousand times you’re going to be
wheel-turning king of a country.
And you will have much local rule
innumerable by counting.
You’ll experience all of that:
fruit of Buddha-recollection.
Transmigrating from birth to birth
you will receive many riches.
In wealth never deficiency:
fruit of Buddha-recollection.
In one hundred thousand aeons,
arising in Okkāka’s clan,
the one whose name is Gotama
will be the Teacher in the world.
Discarding eight hundred million
and many slaves and workers too,
you’ll renounce in the great Teaching
of Gotama the Blessed One.
Satisfying the Sambuddha,
Gotama, the Bull of Śākyas,
you will be known as Subhūti,
a follower of the Teacher.
Seated in the monks’ assembly
he’ll fix you in two foremost spots:
in the group of gift-receivers,
and also of forest-dwellers.”
But not a text that would normally be classed as an EBT, as it’s from the Apadāna. The Apadānas are to arahants and paccekabuddhas rather what the Jātakas are to sammāsambuddhas. That is, like the Jātakas do with bodhisattvas, the Apadānas depict each arahant’s path to enlightenment as commencing with a pivotal encounter with a past Buddha, followed by a multi-kalpa development of the ten perfections (though not for as many kalpas as would be needed for buddhahood).
If you click on the next apadāna, and then the one after that, and the one after that … you’ll find the same multi-kalpa spiel replicated in all of them.
Which is typical of oral tradition recitations, btw. Not sure what that has to do with it being early or not. Generally speaking, it would indicate fairly early roots, at least.
I didn’t state that as grounds for calling it late, but merely to note that the Apadāna passage quoted in the post wasn’t something remarkable, but rather something common to each section of the Apadāna.
I would regard the Apadāna as late on account of features like the ten pāramī doctrine, the multi-lifetime super-gradualist conception of the path to arahatta, and the Mahayana-like extravagance of its poetry.
